Staff shake-up at pharmacies seen as cure

From the Standard (HK):
The city's 500 pharmacies and dispensaries may be required to have full-time pharmacists - instead of them being present for just a third of their business hours - under a looming overhaul of the industry.

Under current laws, a pharmacy need only have a pharmacist working 6.7 hours if it is open for business 10 hours a day.

But members of a top-level committee, formed after a spate of drug contamination blunders that have killed six people, have reached a consensus that fully staffed pharmacies is the way to go, The Standard has been told.

The government proposal means dispensaries will have to create an additional shift for a pharmacist. ...more